Beat the Winter Blues Tea

Soooo – considering I’m not a dress person, I have made a second Tea House Dress!!  The first one is the pretty, summer party version, you know the type, only drinks posh edlerflower spritzers and eats cucumber sandwiches – with no crusts.  This dress is very different.  This one drinks tea and eats whatever she can find in the fridge, every day!  I think it’s going to be a bit of a uniform of sorts!

So, the fabric was purchased (yup, not even from the stash!!) from a local hospice charity shop, 3m for £7.50!  It was marked in the selvedge as Made in England, worsted wool.  The ground is blue, with black, making teeny tiny houndstooths.  They’re set within a brighter blue windowpane check.  It’s a good weight suiting fabric, and soft.  I threw it into the washing machine when I got it home from the charity shop on a woollen cycle with Ecover liquid.  Washing hasn’t changed the texture or finish of the fabric at all, which is great as this will be worn a lot so will need to get used to being in the washing machine!

I decided to make the shorter version of the dress this time, planning to wear it through the cooler weather with leggings or tights, booots/trainers and a long sleeved tee or even a thin jumper underneath.  I also decided to do a slight pattern alteration.  I lengthened the bodice along the lenthen/shorten lines by 2cm.  I felt that I needed more depth over the bust, that the ties could easily be 2cm lower down and still work to give the illusion of a waist!

I tried to make sure all the holizontal lines would line up around the body, and this worked a treat on the skirt and pocket pieces!  Not so good on the bodice…  This is because I totally forgot about stripe placement when pinning and sewing the princess seams…  It wouldn’t be that obvious if they were the same on each side, but I decided I could live with it.  Everything else worked a treat, so this would do.  I overlocked all the raw edges before sewing because this stuff frayed quite badly.  I was really pleased with the stripes on the pockets though.  Using the alternative grain marked on the pieces, I made sure the stripes would be aligned and it worked!  I haven’t got a photo where I haven’t got my hand stuffed in the pocket where you could see, but both vertical and horizontal stripes line up!  Brilliant!

Now, I know that last dress got loads of love, it’s really pretty and I can’t wait for next summer to wear it, cocktails and nibbles, the works.  But this dress.  I LOVE IT!  I really do, I recon it will be a good alternative to jeans.  I can see this getting a lot of use, and now I’m thinking maybe a lightweight denim would be very nice!  I haven’t seen many winter weight Tea House Dresses online, has anyone made one?  What I will need though, is a jumper/jacket/coat that will cope with the size of these sleeves.  They’re a wee bit big for what I have already…

Author: Anne W

I love fabric, and sewing. And I could do nothing else but sew, all day, every day, if I could! View all posts by Anne W